Zita Vaughn

Zita Vaughn, a resident of Dothan, AL, passed away on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at her residence. She was 93.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 18, 2017 at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity with Father Peter Wong officiating. Burial will follow in Memory Hill Cemetery with Robert Byrd directing. The family will receive friends from 12:30-2:00 p.m. prior to the service at the church.

Zita was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1923. She soon moved to Paris Texas. In 1949 she moved with her family to San Antonio, Texas where she met her husband Col.(ret.) Henry C. Vaughn, Jr. After the birth of her son, she moved to Dothan in 1956 during her husband’s overseas post and Dothan being the home of his parents. She moved to Montgomery, Alabama in 1976 and lived there until 2002, when she returned to Dothan after the death of her husband and beloved sister Alice to be near her son.

Zita vividly remembered the day she arrived in Dothan, alone and a stranger in an unfamiliar city. Zita's entire life, however, had been filled with loving service to others, so in a matter of weeks she was deeply involved in the community. She had many passions but her church, young people, and the developmentally disabled were at the core She lovingly taught pre-school Sunday school for 50 years at St. Marks (San Antonio-5 yrs.), Nativity (Dothan-20 yrs.), and Ascension (Montgomery-25 yrs.). She was named Dothan's Woman of the Year in 1961. She was a Lifetime Board member of the Dothan-Houston County ARC, Honorary Life member of the Dothan Salvation Army Advisory Board, Alabama Society for Crippled Children and Adults, Scout troop leader for Montgomery deaf intellectually disabled and cerebral palsied girls, and served many years as hostess for the High-Risk Center at the Children's Center of Montgomery, to name but a few. She was The Alabama Developmental Disability Volunteer of the year in 1982. Zita was instrumental in conceiving, planning for and arranging financing for the Vaughn-Blumberg Center serving those with intellectual disabilities in the Dothan- Houston Co. area.

Zita will be remembered for filling everything with love, laughter and hugs. Her family would like to thank all the doctors, nurses and especially the caregivers who became our family over the last fourteen years. In lieu of flowers, the family requests any memorial gifts be made to the Vaughn-Blumberg Center or the Episcopal Church of the Nativity.

She was preceded in death by her parents William Albert and Stella Simmons Van Dyke, sister Alice Van Dyke, and husband Col.(ret) Henry C. Vaughn, Jr.

Survivors include her son and daughter-in-law, Dr. Henry C. and Carol Vaughn, III; and her grandson, Henry C. “Hank” Vaughn, IV.